Lead me and guide me

Scripture: You are my rock, my rampart; true to your name, lead me and guide me! Psalm 31:3

Prayer: It's as if the journey begins anew after yesterday's celebration. The wind on the beach from the northeast was biting cold and sustained; the sunrise rose from a low cloud bank further southeast, it seemed in North Caroline. Let me shed the nostalgia of the season, and maybe even the past of remembered family celebrations and begin my walk anew.

Response: As a faithful mantra, repeat the words, lead me and guide me! What more do you need. Clearly, those words suggest that you unburden yourself of weighty matters since your journey begins anew. There are new horizons to visit, new villages to pass through, new and old friends to encounter, and strangers to push the chill from their lives.

The wonderful insight in this verse is that you don't need a travel guide, a storehouse of wealth to sustain you—just the willingness, courage, and trust to set out as any explorer who set out from a safe harbor to determine the dimensions of one's heart at whatever age in response to the experiences and opportunities that await. And it is the Lord's grace and love that sustains you. Yes, the Lord is your rock and it is within His protection that you are encouraged to lengthen your stride.

So today, turn the page on a new adventure. If you were writing your story, today begins a new chapter—you don't have to wait until the New Year. The page is blank before you. The ink from your pen glistens on the textured parchment—no erasures are possible, This is where you step off with even a greater consciousness that He leads and guides you in all matters of the heart.